Volunteers in the 30th annual UW Police Department (UWPD) food drive collected donations from fans as they filtered into the stadium at the UW vs. Cal football game Saturday, collecting more canned food than last year despite concerns that the cold weather would draw less people to the game.

“It’s going to help a lot of people,” said Northwest Harvest driver Ken Larson. “There are a lot of people that need help with food, especially this year with all of the layoffs.”

The annual drive collects food and monetary donations at one of the home football games each year to donate to Northwest Harvest, an organization that supports local missions and food banks. Officers in the UWPD’s Crime Prevention Unit organize the annual event, and high-school students in police explorer programs around the state volunteer to collect the donations.

“Anytime we can come out here and try to help … it’s a positive thing,” said Snohomish County Sheriff explorer Dain Drumhiller.

The explorer programs are designed to prepare students for careers in law enforcement. In the past, groups have traveled from as far as Yakima to volunteer their time.

Northwest Harvest distributes the food to local missions and food banks and uses the money collected to purchase additional food to deliver to organizations across the state.

“If you donate here, the food goes to your local community,” Larson said.

Michael Youssi, operations director for Northwest Harvest, said the organization purchases four to fives times what the average consumer is able to buy at the store with a given amount of money, because it receives discounts for making bulk purchases. He said that the program can provide a nutritious meal to a family of three for 67 cents.

“All the money that’s donated will go directly to the purchase of food,” Youssi said.

UWPD Crime Prevention Officer Warren Bresko said the drive is usually held earlier in the season. However, the athletic department schedules the drive among a variety of other events, and the available game ended up being the last one of the year. Unexpectedly, the food drive happened during the same game the University offered up to four free tickets to all police, military and fire department personnel, which brought more people in through the gates.

The donations will not be officially totaled until later this week, but Bresko said more than $6,700 was raised, and more canned food was collected than last year. Excluding this year, the event has collected more than 400,000 pounds of food and $165,572 since it began in 1986.

“These people are being very generous,” Drumhiller said. “It’s amazing how much people give.”

Reach reporter Lexie Krell at news@dailyuw.com.